The Cruel Murder of Mina Miller — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Cruel Murder of Mina Miller
John Stuart Mill · en
They began by looking for the person from whom the bottle of Rhine wine
had been purchased. Every saloon along the Boulevard and the Hackensack
plank road was visited, but to no purpose. Continuing their inquiries,
they entered an inn kept by Edward Stabel, on the Weaverstown road.
When they questioned him he said he remembered that on the day
indicated by them a woman had called at his place and asked for a
bottle of Rhine wine. As he did not have any he sent his granddaughter,
Lizzie Haas, to Mr. Eberling’s store, in Bergenline avenue, for a
bottle of it. While the girl was absent the woman chatted pleasantly
with Stabel. She told him, among other things, that she had just been
married by the Rev. Mr. Mabon, the pastor of the Grove Reformed Dutch
Church, and that she wanted the wine to celebrate the event, and to
treat the minister. She also said that she was about to sail for
France. When the girl came back with the bottle of wine the woman paid
her fifty cents for it, and gave her ten cents additional out of a $5
gold piece that Stabel changed for her. On leaving the saloon the woman
was joined by a man. Stabel could not recollect anything in particular
about the man, except that he had stood outside on the street while the
woman bought the wine. But he gave a very accurate description of the
woman and her dress, which tallied both with Mrs. Finck’s description
of the woman she had seen, and with that of the murdered woman. Mrs.
Stabel furnished additional details. She said the woman came to the
saloon on the 3d of May. She was sure of the date, because on the
same day there was a burial in the Grove Church Cemetery which is
only a short distance from the inn. The woman told Mrs. Stabel of her
marriage, and explained that it had been secretly performed, because
her brother disliked her husband, and had objected to the match. She
also said that she had been married once before, and had attended a
cigar store which her former husband kept in N. Y. city. Mrs. Stabel’s
circumstantial description of the woman tallied yet more accurately
than her husband’s with that of the murdered woman.
The detectives then went to the parsonage of the Grove Reformed Dutch
Church, where they found the Rev. Dr. Mabon. He recollected having
married a couple on May 3d. The woman, he said, entered his residence
alone, leaving the man in the yard, where he paced up and down as
if absorbed in meditation. The woman asked Mr. Mabon if he would
perform a marriage, and upon being told yes, she went out and returned
immediately with the man. As the couple had not provided a witness, the
clergyman called in John Schuman, a barber in Union street, Union Hill.
The man and woman made satisfactory replies to the usual questions, and
they were married in legal form. After the ceremony they subscribed
the following record of the marriage, which is now in Mr. Mabon’s
possession: